What most people can do during a large-scale power outage is just turn on their torches or light up several candles. However, you are able to experience a rather different aura if you have solar panels and smart battery energy storage systems set up at home.
How are smart battery energy storage systems protecting home owners from power outages? Dan King, COO of Harmon Electric & Solar, recently shared with the public the observation from 3 of his Tesla Powerwalls and 15kw solar panels. He also severed the connection between his home and the grid to monitor the performance of the solar panels, battery energy storage system, and battery management within the 48 hours.
Solar panels are usually just able to satisfy power consumption in daytime if there is no battery energy storage system installed, and there will be zero available electricity during cloudy and rainy days. If an energy storage system is installed, the solar panels would charge up the batteries when there is a sufficient level of illumination in daytime, and the batteries will release power during cloudy days or nighttime for the homeowners.
Hence, the Powerfull installed at King’s backyard was instantly switched to the power supply mode when it detected the power off, and the home appliance system remained functional. King commented that even the microwave and the clock were functioning normally.
The power supply lasted to the next day even without the help of solar panels during nighttime. King claimed that the Powerwalls had 15-16% of power left the next morning even though he did not activate the outdoor illumination equipment and the sprinkling system, which means that the set up is able to conserve energy, and the pairing of solar panels with Powerwalls will achieve an uninterrupted supply of power for homes.
King has 3 units of Powerfulls installed at his home that store an adequate level of electricity, though it looks like he also has quite a number of home appliances. As indicated in the video, the home appliances in his house, including garage lighting, TV, computer, microwave, oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, as well as the constant temperature and humidity cabinet for cigars, were operating as usual during 8 p.m. the next day. All home appliances remained functional within the two days of “autonomous power outage” at King’s residence.
(Source: captured from the video)
An installation of Tesla’s system offers instantaneous monitoring on the power consumption status of the entire house through the App, of which the blue area indicates power consumption on the day, whereas the green and yellow areas represent the charged volume of Powerwall and the solar power generation volume respectively. The statistics of the power management system show that King used about 56.7kWh of electricity on a Sunday, where the average electricity consumption for each US household during non-summer times is about 60-70kWh (an average monthly power consumption of roughly 326kWh for each Taiwanese household was recorded in 2019).
The test was only possible as air conditioners and heaters are not required just yet, and will not be implementable when the season of high power consumption arrives. Furthermore, the stable supply of power this time also depended on the sufficient level of solar power generation.
Apart from being a renowned electric vehicle brand, Tesla is also constantly releasing new residential power systems, such as the recently launched Powerwall+ that has a higher energy storage volume, in addition to the existing solar panels and Solar Roofs. Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed that the company will be releasing an all-in-one product that comprises of Powerwall and Tesla solar panels or the Solar Roof system.
(Cover photos source: Tesla)